Bigfoot Q&A with Barry Williams and Danny Bonaduce

I usually choose not to cover the SyFy creature feature movies as I don’t generally watch them (although I’ve seen a few that turned out to be a lot of fun). However, when I received an invitation to be part of a Q&A for Bigfoot with Barry Williams (The Brady Bunch) and Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family), how could I refuse?

In Bigfoot, Williams and Bonaduce star as life-long rivals battling over the monster. Rounding out the cast is Howard Hesseman (Head of the Class), Sherilyn Fenn (Twin Peaks), Andre Royo (The Wire) and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Alice Cooper (School’s Out). The film was directed by Oscar and Emmy nominee Bruce Davison (X-Men).

The Q&A began by asking the actors how they got involved with the movie. According to Williams, “It was really easy for me. They said that they were talking to Danny Bonaduce and they wanted me in the movie. And I said as long as I can beat him up I’ll do the movie.”

However, for Bonaduce, being involved with the project wasn’t so cut and dry. ” But I was doing my radio show two years ago and heard that I was doing a movie about Bigfoot with Barry Williams. I called my agent who also has my name on Google Search and he said I just read that too. I said is there any truth to it? And he said I haven’t heard a word about it. And two years later we started production. It was really bizarre but it’s neat.”

But is the movie scary? Well, it depends on who you ask on when it’s the scariest, at least from an actors’ perspective. ” I have to tell you too, I love doing a monster movie. It’s great fun to do because it’s only scary when you watch it and not so much when you do it,” said Williams.

Bonaduce disagreed, but the reason he found movies scarier when making them had more to do with acting. “You’re just staring off at a big stick with a piece of tape on it because we’re going to put in by magic – I’m sure there are some initials, that Bigfoot will be there later,” he stated. “Everybody screams. I said Barry, do you like feel really stupid when we do that?”

Bonaduce continued, ” And Barry said no, I’m an actor. When he says Bigfoot’s right there I assume Bigfoot’s right there. And I went wow, I’m bad at acting because I feel really stupid.”

Do the actors believe in things like Bigfoot? Well, after being asked about it, Bonaduce talked about how living in Seattle has opened his mind to the possibility, as that city is sporting a major love affair with the creature. He remarked, “Do I believe that there is something – I don’t know if it’s necessarily out in the woods or under the sea or in the sky but I believe for sure that there is something unlike us that has equal or superior intelligence.”

Williams also talked about being in Seattle, but was slightly more skeptical. ” The sitings, the trackings I enjoy kind of observing it. And you have to know that somewhere in there there’s got to be some type of missing link or something that’s bridging the gap through our own evolution,” he stated. “But it’s hard to imagine with GPS taking it down to inches of where you are that if we really wanted to find it, it would be pretty hard to hide.”

So the question of the hour, obviously, was what it was like working with rock legend Alice Cooper. After Bonaduce went on and on about Cooper’s awesome leather jacket, he talked about a scene where he needed to improv with Cooper for a few minutes. “I had said come on, you have to help me out Alice. We go way back. And he goes go way back? I’ve known you for two hours and I already hate you. And he hit me with a riding crop.” Bonaduce went on to say that it was “really neat.”

Um… okay… well, what did Williams think about Cooper? Having been a fan for years, he was thrilled about hearing that Cooper had been cast in the film. But that thrill became a slight disappointment. Williams said, “And I was also, you know, hoping because I sing a song in this movie and I was kind of hoping maybe I get some props from the Man and that didn’t happen.” Apparently, Williams’ song was called a “hootenanny” by Cooper later on. But Williams did refer to Cooper as “a very cool guy.”

Both actors called Bruce Davison the hero of the movie. Not only did he give both actors good direction that was helpful, but he also had to pull strings and make last-minute edits due to time constraints and locations not being available for shooting (sometimes due to bad weather). According to Williams, ” There were all kinds of things that a less flexible director never would have been able to overcome.”

When asked about favorite scenes in the movies, Williams had a definitive answer. ” Top of Mount Rushmore with Danny’s character taking a fall and he’s dangling over the edge and I’m holding on,” he immediately replied. “And he’s holding onto my arm. That was the highlight of the filming.”